Victoria Maloch, an honors graduate from the U of A and the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, has been promoted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to a senior staff position in Washington, D.C.

Maloch has been promoted to chief of staff for marketing and regulatory programs.

Most recently, Maloch served as special adviser for strategic communications in USDA's Office of Communications. Prior to joining USDA, she was communications director for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture, where she also held policy roles for the Commodity Exchanges, Energy and Credit Subcommittee and the Biotechnology, Horticulture and Research Subcommittee.

Maloch also served as a Truman-Albright fellow in the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Maloch, from Emerson, Arkansas, earned her bachelor's degree in agricultural business and minors in agricultural communications and agricultural leadership in 2017.

She graduated summa cum laude, received the Senior Honor Citation from the Arkansas Alumni Association as the top female graduate from the U of A in 2017, was named a Marshall Scholar and attended Oxford University.

Maloch earned a master's degree in public policy from the University of Cambridge and a master's degree in comparative social policy from the University of Oxford.

She is an Emerson High School graduate, a former National FFA officer and grew up on her family's Arkansas Century Farm. She is the daughter of Martha and Bruce Maloch.

As a junior at the U of A, Maloch was selected as one of six national officers for the National Future Farmers of America, working 80 or more hours each week. She helped increase the FFA's social media footprint and develop its communication platform. She also led leadership training conferences across the country and worked with a team to produce content for and preside over a convention of 65,000 members.

As a junior, Maloch was also selected as a Truman Scholar for her commitment to public service and her desire to be an agent for change.

She participated in a service-learning study abroad project in Dangriga, Belize, where she developed and conducted student and adult education workshops. She followed that with another project in Nampula, Mozambique, where she analyzed business operations at Novos Horizontes and met with growers to collect profile data to help them increase sales.

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About the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences: Bumpers College provides life-changing opportunities to position and prepare graduates who will be leaders in the businesses associated with foods, family, the environment, agriculture, sustainability and human quality of life; and who will be first-choice candidates of employers looking for leaders, innovators, policy makers and entrepreneurs. The college is named for Dale Bumpers, former Arkansas governor and longtime U.S. senator who made the state prominent in national and international agriculture. For more information about Bumpers College, visit our website, and follow us on Twitter at @BumpersCollege and Instagram at BumpersCollege.

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $2.2 billion to Arkansas' economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the few U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research and Economic Development News.